If she had been given a choice, it is likely one of the ways she would most like to be remembered.

One of this country's most accomplished women sports photojournalists, Floral Park's Kathryn Dudek, made a name for herself covering events ranging from the New York City Marathon to the U.S. Open Tennis Championship to polo and gymnastics events.

And yet it is Kathy Dudek's images of horse racing, captured at a number of tracks, including Belmont Park and the Saratoga Springs Race Track, that have guaranteed her a lasting place in the hearts and minds of thoroughbred fans, and kept her memory alive since her untimely death in an auto accident six years ago this past week.

So closely tied was Kathy Dudek to the racing community at Belmont Park that an allowance race, The Memories of Kathryn, was named in her honor. It is held every year on May 21.

"Oh, the people who knew Kathy have just been fantastic to us," her father, Henry Dudek, said. "This is actually the seventh year they've run the race, and every year Terry Meyocks, the president of the New York Racing Association, invites us to watch it from the Trustees Room at the track.

"The funny thing is ¬ and I don't know if Kathy, wherever she is, has a hand in it ¬ but every year thus far, her mother and I have picked the winner of the race.

"Last year we even had Floral Park Mayor Steve Corbett with us, gave him a tip on a horse, and he won as well."

Perhaps, as her Dad implies, Kathryn Dudek does have a hand in the outcome of the race. This year, for instance, another Floral Park native, jockey Richard Migliore rode a 3-year-old filly named Madge to the head of the pack and into the winner's circle.

In the winner's circle, Mr. and Mrs. Dudek ¬ all smiles, of course ¬ were joined by Mr. Meyocks and a bevy of well-wishers.

Adding to their excitement this year is their daughter's inclusion in the recently published book Long Island Women: Activists and Innovators.

According to the Dudeks, it is the first book ever published about prominent Long Island women, and in addition to their daughter, it also includes chapters on Alicia Patterson, Kate Mason Hofstra, Barbara McClintock, and Harriet Quimby.

As the book recalls, Kathryn Dudek was born in 1954 in Endicott, New York, the first of five children, and her family later moved to Floral Park, after an interim period in Queens.

Her career in photojournalism evolved from a number of different childhood interests, and an early love of horses set the stage for many of the finest moments of her sadly, abbreviated career.

"I think the answer, when you ask why she did what she did, is she always loved horses, having been exposed to them at an early age," her father explained. "I was attending the City College of New York when Kathy and her sister Nancy were young and, funny as it may sound, I used to do a lot of my reading and homework at the Aqueduct Race Track.

"Whenever I'd go, I'd bring them along to see the horses and enjoy the outdoors, and whether that was the spark of her interest, I can't say. But it was evident very early on that she loved animals and as an adult, she was at the track morning, noon and night."

According to Field Horne, the curator of the National Racing Museum, the images Dudek captured during her abbreviated career represent a "new and higher level of artistry" in sports photography.

Perhaps her most famous photograph is one depicting a steeplechase race in Saratoga Springs, New York. What makes it so amazing? The fact that it's taken from the base of one of the jumps. looking up at the horses as they pass over it.

"I honestly don't know how she did it," said Mr. Dudek, when asked about it. "People ask my wife and me that all the time and, sadly, we never did ask her how it was done.

"It's a funny thing though, it's one of those photographs that always draws people near when it's displayed. At one exhibit, when we asked a curator about the security of the photographs, he said, don't worry, none of them will walk away because we have very good guards.

"Then he stopped and said, well maybe one of them will walk away ¬ Steeplechase ¬ but who'll know who will have taken it because it will have been me."

The proud father lets loose a raucous chuckle.

After the "Steeplechase," other prized Dudek photographs include a portrait of Angel Cordero, Jr. kneeling at his father's grave after winning his 6,000th race, and, on a much lighter note, owner Ronnie Lamarque, co-owner of Risen Star, the 1988 Belmont winner, singing to his horse, a glass of champagne in hand.

"Kathy wasn't just a race photographer," her father said of such images, "she always told us that what she loved best was the whole spectrum of life at the track."

Among the family's favorite images captured by their daughter are Morning Bath, which shows a horse being bathed in the Belmont stable area, with sprays of water glimmering in the morning sunlight, and Carrying the Hay, a portrait of a stable hand shouldering a bale.

"Another really unique photograph ¬ and one that I think is a favorite of many people who work at Belmont is of the famous Belmont tree, the one that stands in the paddock area, surrounded by snow.

"That one was displayed during the Breeder's Cup there and I remember a great many people had commented on it. You see, Belmont closes in the winter and everything shifts over to Aqueduct. Kathy had gone over to Belmont after a big snowstorm and taken the picture and as it turned out, because they were at Aqueduct, this was a scene that even Belmont employees had never seen."

The first major exhibition of Kathryn Dudek's equine photographs was held at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga in 1995.

For that program, 51 of her horse racing photographs were displayed enmass for the very first time.

That same exhibition was displayed at Belmont Park during the Breeder's Cup two years ago, and again for six weeks in Washington, D.C. last year.

It is now part of the permanent collection of the Chelsea Arts Center in East Norwich.

"It's amazing actually, but the demand for her photographs and exhibitions of her work has never let up," Mr. Dudek said recently.

Inevitably, any conversation about his daughter, must touch upon her death.

Kathryn Dudek was only 38 years old on May 21, 1992, and she was walking near her own Floral Park home, on the way to the post office, when one speeding car swerved into another and they both jumped over the curb, striking her down.

"Basically, she was just standing on the corner of Tulip and Plainfield Avenues, waiting for the light to change," Mr. Dudek remembered quietly. "A few hours later, she was gone."

Courtesies like those extended to the Dudek family by the New York Racing Association and others, and the fond memories so many have of her, have helped heal the family's pain to a degree.

And every so often ¬ with marked regularity ¬ they hear from somebody new who talks of how their daughter touched their life through Kodachrome.

Just last year, for instance, they received a call from the women who rented Dudek a carriage house in Saratoga each summer for the racing season.

"She said she hasn't rented that carriage house out since Kathy died," Mr. Dudek said. "All the same, she said she'd love to have us stay there if we decided to come up."

All the attention Kathryn Dudek's work receives and all the good feelings she continues to inspire among those who knew her, makes Mr. Dudek feel quite proud.

"There's no doubt about it, and that helps us cope with the loss," he said.

"You know, rarely a day goes by that someone doesn't call about some aspect of her work, whether it's people wanting to buy copies of her photographs for their own private collections, or organizations and publishers needing photos for different projects.

"For instance, just in the past month, the National Museum of Racing called to inquire about a photograph of Easy Goer, who they were inducting into the Hall of Fame, and then the authors of a book about Louisiana bred horses called for a photo of Risen Star... It happens all the time, and in its own way, it's awfully nice."